With a pandemic-era solo venture that, from most, would’ve been relegated to ‘throwaway time-killer’, Laura Jane Grace added another string to her bow with a single deft stroke. Furthermore, it says a lot such a short space of time has earmarked noteworthy differences between a Grace solo song and a stripped-down Against Me! one. And yes, 2018’s Bought To Rot with The Devouring Mothers might have been sorta-reconned in its attribution to just her now, but that’s also a different kettle of fish entirely.
Instead, a from-the-ground-up Laura Jane Grace song will carry a handful of tells. It tends to be shorter and smaller, and built around a single, insular idea seldom equipped to be expounded upon as a punk banger. It’ll also be the barest of barebones musically, completely by design to let the strident shout of Grace take an unassailable lead. Purely simple yet effective, is what it is.
And there is charm to implanting someone like Grace into an environment like that. Never is she one to pull punches, but a matter-of-factness leaning on her poetic traits as a songwriter can produce some nuggets of greatness, regardless of the fairly minute scale. Hole In My Head, made up of scrapbooked thoughts and feelings that never break three minutes apiece, is testament to that. Dysphoria Hoodie is the big one, a favourite for ages that just wouldn’t feel right if it weren’t solely acoustic, where the vigour of Grace’s strums and her baked-in neuroses fill in any gaps to still sound suitably punk in intent. It’s true of further acoustic numbers like Cuffing Season or Keeping Your Wheels Straight, where there’s so much magnetism to their simplicity that, at the same time, isn’t watered down. To put it plainly, that isn’t how Grace does things.
Want more proof? Well just look at the songs that are plugged in, and how a ‘50s rock ‘n’ roll aesthetic that also adheres to a doctrine of bare minimalism escapes its own fraught pitfalls. As opposed to garage-rock clones for whom misguided ‘classicism’ is shot for but never met, Grace’s approach is actually tailored to her own style. There’s more power-pop and indie-rock woven in, even on the rather dead-on rockabilly pastiche I’m Not A Cop. That’ll bring in an energy that undercuts any brittleness or half-baked accusations, like on Birds Talk Too with its jaunty, scratchy riff and hook pulled from George Harrison’s Got My Mind Set On You, or the shuffling reminiscence on coming up on Punk Rock In Basements.
If there’s any thematic throughline here, it’s probably how fully-formed Grace is as an artist, regardless of medium. Obviously there’s nothing squaring up to the upper echelon of Against Me!, but comparatively miniscule side-projects like this rarely paint their creators in this good a light. Grace is just a stellar all-rounder in that sense, standing out most for writing that maintains its wit and humour, but never really slouching anywhere. If there is a criticism to be made, maybe it’s how this can feel a little underdeveloped as a whole, and when the core set of instruments doesn’t allow for a ton of diversity, it can sometimes ebb back a bit much. But, like…is that unexpected? It’s unfiltered and homespun, as punk of this stripe should be, and a very brisk runtime ensures that the worst of any flab is suitably excised. Expecting thrills aplenty over quality songwriting and one of the best performers working at the helm is to look in the wrong direction, almost deliberately.
At the end of the day, Hole In My Head is still a very good album—as everything associated with Grace is—for playing to its clearly defined strengths. Grace centres herself, delivers what she’s absolutely, unequivocally best at, and comes out with such an obvious winner. In a field of great artists and writers, it’s Grace’s knack for something like this that shows why she’s so far ahead. Away from the distortion and the big riffs and even the majority a band behind her, there’s something so special that continues to permeate. On her particular grading curve, ‘not her absolute best but still pretty damn good’ is still a mark that’s high, high up there.
For fans of: Against Me!, Worriers, Gregor Barnett
‘Hole In My Head’ by Laura Jane Grace is released on 16th February on Big Scary Monsters.
Words by Luke Nuttall
